Tornado slams yacht, sweeps women overboard

Dramatic footage has captured the moment two British sailors are swept overboard when a freak tornado slams into their yacht.

Sarah Usher, 34, and Liz Richards, 65, were competing in the Clipper Round the World Race in January, when their 70ft yacht sailing in the Pacific Ocean north of Papua New Guinea is struck by 185kmph winds.

The yacht is blown onto its side, sweeping the two women into the ocean.

The video, captured on a mounted camera fixed onto the yacht’s mast shows other crew members coming to their rescue and pulling them back on board.

'I remember being hit by a rush of water. I lost my balance and the force of the water just took me over the side,” Ms Usher told the DailyMail UK.

'I was shouting at my crew ‘I’m not clipped on, I’m not clipped on!’ My heart was in my mouth - it was pretty frightening.”

The ordeal lasted about a minute. In the video, you can just make out the tornado in the background, as the women scramble back on board.